Welcome to Vienna, Austria

Vienna is truly a beautiful city! Unfortunately we only got about 6 hours to spend there which is not nearly enough!! But in that short time we were able to see a lot of amazing buildings, cool architecture and met a wonderful professor who showed us many sites and taught us a lot about Vienna. 

The remarkably beautiful, Vienna 

Vienna is the capital of Austria, located near the borders of Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, and home to about 1.7 million people. Vienna is known around the world as the City of Music, because of its world renowned opera and musical heritage, as well as the City of Dreams, as it is home to the world's first psycho-analyst Sigmund Freud. When translated from its roots, Vienna means bright or fair. In 2005 it tied for first place with Vancouver, Canada as the world's most livable city, and in 2012 it ranked second. During the Quality of Living survey taken from 2009-2012 Vienna ranked first place, again. After visiting the city it is easy to understand why. Vienna is captivating. The prices are fair, the people are friendly, the history is remarkable, and the innovations taking place continue to grow. 

The BEST part of the day was when we were standing by a fountain taking pictures, striking poses, when an older man walked up and asked us if we knew what the fountain was called. We all shook our heads and he told us it was called Providentia Fountain and that Mother Teresa had wanted it destroyed because it was too expressive, but it was instead buried for over 100 years until an excavation crew dug it up where it now sits in central Vienna. One of the women on the fountain has her breast exposed and he told us it is considered the perfect size and medical doctors use it today still when women get implants. He was a very funny, intelligent man, and he told us that he was a medical doctor and a professor at the Vienna University, and that he loves his students and thinks of them as his children. He said our parents must be very proud to have such beautiful, well-mannered daughters who had a passion for learning because it was so important. 

He then asked us if we had some more time and when we said yes he proceeded to give us a tour of many magnificent 'sensations' in Vienna for the next 45 minutes. He was enthusiastic and loved that we were so interested. He even got a security guard in St. Stephen's Cathedral to let us into an enclosed area for 5 minutes where he showed us an old banister that had frogs carved on its railing. He told us that the legend says if women cannot get pregnant they would come here and walk down the staircase with their hand on the frogs, and they would become pregnant! He also took us to visit an old church with an imperial crypt where the Austrian Royal Habsburg Family was buried. Outside the church there was an old Brachent Linen Store where Marie Antoinette would buy a new dress everyday, imported from Milan, Spain. 

Frogs carved onto the staircase - Austrian sign of Fertility

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Meeting this man, Pablo Niccole, was the best experience while in Vienna, maybe the whole Europe trip! He was such a kind man and loved teaching us about the history of Vienna. We definitely had luck on our side that afternoon! Vienna is beautiful, interesting, and a city where you could spend days without getting tired of it. I can't wait to go back one day!

Professor Pablo Niccole :)

So happy Miss Kyla joined our tour group again!

I don't see why Mother Teresa would destroy him.

We love each other.